We packed up and headed off. We were happy with the hotel, the price was good and the service was good as well although the location was a bit suspect.

I drove at the start and we stopped for coffee after about an hour and a half. We had loads of time. The rain came and went a few times but was nowhere near as bad as the previous night.

We decided to come off the motorway and go to a village for lunch instead of staying and going to a motorway cafe. The town was called Vitre and we found a nice little restaurant in the centre where we could watch the bikes on the back of the car from our table outside. The lunch was brilliant and cost only €14. This is something I will miss from France. the quality of the food is great and the lunch (Plat du Jour) is very good value.

Heading on we decided to stop just outside Roscoff and kill an hour and have a pint after the long journey.

Next we drove into Roscoff to have dinner. We met a couple from Wales driving the a Prius (same type and colour) with bikes on it, bit of a coincidence.

We went in search of a restaurant and decided on one that again would allow us to watch the bikes. The dinner was grand but there is only so long you can sit over it. At 9pm we decided to go to the ferry terminal and wait in line for the two hours til we boarded. This two hours turned into three hours as they had given us GMT and not French time on the text.

My mood was getting blacker as the night wore on. I was tired and irritable and generally not a happy camper. When there was some movement around midnight the guy in front of use decided that he would turn his car on and his hazard light were on. I don’t know if you have ever sat and looked into flashing hazard lights for half an hour before but it is bloody annoying. In the end Jack asked him to turn them off he produced an disable sticker and said the port authorities told him to keep them on.

Now, I am trying not to be bitter about this but this was a guy who had been walking up and down the car park earlier and what the f*@k was the point in sitting in a queue of stopped cars with your hazard lights on. (Bitterness off!).

Feeling low and generally hating the world, we were guided onto the boat and up the ramp to the second teir of parking and as the car was low with the weight of the wine, there was a big thus as we reached the top of the ramp as the car bottomed out. Well, I was in bad form before that but that sent me into a downward spiral. I was sick of this journey and just wanted to be home.

We got to the cabin and went to bed. I didn’t sleep too badly and when we got up we decided to pamper ourselves and have breakfast in the more posh restaurant. More expensive but we needed pampering. It was good and the waiter was good as well so things were looking up.

The captain announced we would arrive an hour earlier at 2pm woo hoo!!

We managed to get off the boat without hitting the bottom of the car again and headed up the road back on Irish soil.

The journey was generally uneventful although we missed the French motorways albeit we didn’t miss the tolls.

On arrival home, we found the house in ship shape having been cleaned from top to bottom by Barry and Bríd and they had even cleaded the cobblelock drive. They had also left fresh milk, bread and some other food to get us start. This cheered me up greatly. Peter and William, the guys from next door came over to chat and then Kathleen came out as well. Neighbours here are great.

We unloaded the car and Jack went for a run. Such motivation!! When he got back, we headed to Kwan’s chinese on the corner for dinner and we were welcomed as long lost sons by the owner and his family.

France was great and we had a ball but Ireland is great too and whilst it is not perfect, neither is France. We have to get into a positive frame of mind and let go of the imaginary life we have lived for the past three months and get back normal. We also want to start thinking about how we could make that life a reality. Who knows what’s next in our lives. All we can do is live this one as best we can and make the most of now.

Signing off: Noel & Jack at the end of our Excellent Adventure (29/5/08) 

I woke at 3am and didn’t sleep much after that. I felt stressed by the packing last night and what we had to do this morning. I was afraid that we wouldn’t get all the gear in and you know how your mind runs riot in the blackness of the night, well, that was me.

We got up at 7:30 and started. There was a bit to be done and we had delayed our start because the Triathlon in Carrick On Suir was opening at 8am Irish time and 9am France time.

Time dragged to 9am and there was no sign of the race opening on Active Europe. Jack was getting more stressed about that and I was getting more stressed about hitting the road. It was a real pain. In the end, it didn’t open and I told him to send a mail to Brian Heffernan and ask his to register him and he could sort it out when he got back. Reluctantly he did it. Thank God or I would have killed him otherwise.

We hit the road with the car sitting low on the springs with all our gear and an addition of 70 bottles of wine. I was driving and we decided to take it easy as we didn’t know how the car would handle with a full load on.

The full round trip is over 1000kms and we needed to get over half way today.

We stopped for coffee after an hour or so as Jack hadn’t slept well either and needed a boost.

It had been raining since Saturday night and this was Monday afternoon without a break. My poetic view was that France was crying because we were leaving. The truth was that the weather was shit!!!

In mid afternoon we got a text from Mick Foy wishing us Bon Voyage and asking if we were going to TriAthy next Saturday. This cheered us up and within 30 seconds a text came in from Brian that he had managed to get Jack registered for the Carrick triathlon. Things were looking up.

Jack offered to drive after about 300kms and that was great. But within 100kms, he couldn’t continue and I had to take over again.

At about 500kms the heavens opened and we could barely see in front of us. We decided to go to a town called Nemours about 80kms from Paris. I had to ask Jack the name of the town again it has made such an impression on me.

It’s still raining.

Síle (our GPS) did a search of hotels in the area and managed to bring us to two hotels that didn’t exist. Jack lost patience and confidence in her.

We had earlier looked at an Ibis hotel which appeared to set in an industrial estate and looked crap. It was getting more attractive by the minute as we drove through this town which looked like it was closing down.

Ibis it was!!

We drove round and got parked. One of the key considerations was a place to store the bikes overnight. It’s still lashing rain.

The girl at the desk was friendly and without hesitation showed us a room for the bikes..happy days.

We got settled in the room and then came down to have a beer to wind down after the journey and stressful day.

Back to the bedroom for a doze and it was up again at 7pm and over to a restaurant close by. We didn’t know what to expect but it was fine and served a good steak but rather too quickly. We must be too used to the Provencal way of a long drawn out meal.

Also the more north we come the less attractive the scenery is. Maybe we have been spoiled.

It had stopped raining and a rainbow was out. Things were looking up. After the meal we went for a walk round the industrial estate to see if we could spot a run route for the morning. Picturesque it wasn’t but we think we have a 30 minute run organised. Ie, if it’s not raining.

Now we’re back in the room, fed and watered and ready for a quiet night and another long drive tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s less stressful and not raining.

Til tomorrow.

We got up late again after the nights revelry in the pub. There was a bit of a cloud over the day apart from the fact that it was raining. We had been putting off thinking about leaving and now this was the last day. Depressing.

It’s Sunday and the pool opened at 10:00am and closed at 5pm so we headed over there at about noon after getting something for the dinner tonight at the supermarket.

The swimming pool was full of kids and had a fair share of floaters. I managed to get a lane that was a good as it gets and about two thirds the way through the session I was swimming down the lane on the right side when I hit a girl literally head on. Our heads clashed and both of us stopped dead. The two people behind me also had to stop. The girl started to mouth off about me watching where I was going (bitch!!) until the others told her she was in the wrong side of the lane. I was furious. I don’t know if it’s only this pool that is so badly run or them all.

That being said, I got my swim done and I was happy.  We decided to drive to Uzes for lunch which is about 20km away. The rain lashed down all day and as we entered the village we came across a crash that had just happened. The ambulance hadn’t arrived and the driver of the smaller and most badly damaged car was still inside and being attended to by a passer-by. The ambulance arrived and we were allowed to pass. Better go easy!!

The lunch was beautiful and we headed back home for a doze. When we arrived back at the house, Marc, the owner of the house arrived and we chatted for an hour or so.

We never got our doze and we had to start and pack the car before it got dark. Oh, by the way, the Swiss couple from hell arrived and as usual park broadside making life difficult for us to get parked. Marc had said that he had spoken to them before but they wouldn’t listen. Hardly a good advert for the Swiss! I must check their registration and see what part of Switzerland they from. Renald and Chantal can help with that.

Packing the car was hard going but the worst is over. The car is full to the roof and there are a few bags to go and the bikes have to go on the back. We came with two bikes and we’re going home with three so we’ll see how the rack holds up.

Dinner was Chantals special Thai red curry and if I must say myself it was good. We have open a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape and that will be us for the night.

This has been an amazing adventure and I will have happy memories from it. It’s not over yet as we don’t get back to Ireland until Wednesday. We have 1044 km to drive on Monday and Tuesday to get to Cherbourg so it will be a tough couple of days. We haven’t booked any accommodation from tomorrow but sure we’ll see where we end up.

I may have trouble updating the blog over the next few days but I’ll do my best.

Til tomorrow.

We crawled down the stairs had breakfast and headed out. We were only out a few minutes and it started spitting rain but I’m glad to say it didn’t stay long and it was much warmer than we expected. Jack had to stop at the top of the first climb to take off one of his tops.

On the way from St Victor la Coste to St Paul les Fonts Jack shouted watch the dog in the field. I looked over and there among the vines was a wild pig. It was huge. I shouted to Jack, “It’s a wild pig” and before I had the words out of my mouth, it darted up the ditch and across the road, slipped and hit the ditch on the far side with a thump that was really loud before disappearing into the other field. It was only a few feet in front of us and obviously had been spooked by our shouting. It was huge and possibly weighed about 10 stones. If it had hit us we would have been knocked into the other field ourselves and I would doubt if our bodies or bikes would have escaped unscathed. Apparently according to Jack, it had ran passed us down the field before darting across the road so it must have been going at some speed.

I had often thought about the wild pigs while doing the trail run and sometimes heard rustling in the bushes but I was beginning to believe that there weren’t any in the area. Obviously I was wrong!!!

We continued on and did the short spin. I was tired as we have been doing a swim every day and also a run or a bike as well to make the most of our time. When we got home we had breakfast and went for a doze.

At one o’clock we got up and went to the pool for our penultimate swim in France. It was quiet and we were able to get a reasonable session in and I did my first two 100 metre stints which I was really pleased about. It’s a pity I had that break for the Pyrenees or I would be further on. Towards the end a big bloke got into the lane and started strutting his stuff doing tumble turns etc which is rude to say the least and two floaters drifted in. Thankfully we were nearly finished. It just confirmed my feeling that the French and in particular the people who run that pool have no notion as to how to run a proper swimming pool. Sad but true.

We checked in the pub if they were showing the rugby match and it is on at 6pm. We have no interest in rugby but it should be good crack with a French team and an Irish team on the TV. They said they would show it and we went home for a doze.

At 5:45pm we went down to the pub. Jack wore his rugby top and I had the Irish flag in my pocket for emergencies. We watched the match and the crowd got bigger and it soon became obviious who were the foreigners.

The crack was good so I took out the Irish flag. When Munster won the place went quiet and they drifted off without comment.  In fairness, we didn’t know them and they didn’t know us but the crack was good. Pissed and fed with pizza from the Pizza Chris van we went back home satisfied.

Tomorrow is our last full day. I don’t want this adventure to end but I suppose it has to at some tome unless I have won the Euromillions.

Til tomorrow. Our last day. 

A leisurely breakfast and we headed to the pool for 1pm. Surprising it emptied out quickly and we were left with a lane to ourselves. Perfect!!

I did 42 lengths and I can feel an improvement in my ability to breathe and relax in the water. Jack had a good session as well as he tried out his ‘wetronome’. This is a version of a metronome which gives a sound that you stroke to. The faster you have it bleeping the faster your stoke must be. I think it put him under a bit of pressure.

A cafe au lait and it was off to Avignon for lunch and a last look around the shops. We ended up buying a teapot for the house and some tea, not tea bags, real tea!!

Jack bought a teapot for himself for work and some green teas. The lads in work will have a laugh at that.

I also bought some Provencal herbs as I want to use them at home. Great!! Tired, we headed home with tired legs from walking about.

When we got home, Jack decided he would go for a run so I went too. He did a long trail run and I did the 6km run. We’re definitely knackered now. Dinner was Fajitas and I expect that we will be in bed early after a few glasses of wine.

I hear Jack crying and moaning from the kitchen where he is washing the dishes. What a whinger!! He says he is suffering from severe exhaustion, but I know better. Ignore him and he’ll get through it.

He says he is on the floor now with exhaustion, such a drama queen. Get over it Jack!!! Well, I’d better go down and lift him off the floor as he is making the place look untidy.

Til tomorrow

The next stop was the local winery where we bought a dozen bottles of wine to bring home. While we were there a man asked me if we were Irish and told me his son worked in Culmore Stud. It’s amazing that you meet people who have some connection with Ireland. After about 10 minutes of discussion he rang his son and put me on to him. I didn’t know what to say to him apart from asking him what the weather was like. He was nice anyway and his father proudly told me that his white wine was being sold in Marks and Spencer in Ireland. I was impressed at that. Here I was talking to the man who makes the wine that we drink from our shelves. We never think of that when we buy it at home.

Back home, we had a bit of fruit salad and yoghurt and then hit the road for the pool. We were late and as it turned out, the place had started to clear out and we had a relatively clear run. Today, I upped my number of lengths to forty as I really need to improve.

After the pool we had a coffee at the cafe and went home for soup and bread in the garden for lunch. So nice sitting out in the sun.

We had bought a few special bottles of wine and they were to be ready today so we headed to the local co-op winery and picked them up. We had identified three more independent wineries that we wanted to visit to bring home local wines from the village.

The first was about half a mile up the road. Now in these independent wineries, you ring the bell and you are brought into their house or a room off the winery. It’s not really a shop as we know it. In the first one, the lady was tending vines across the road and came to open for us. She was nice and we tasted the wines and bought six of the best one. I got her to pose for a photo and she was a bit embarrassed but did it anyway.

Next we went to Domaine de Pelaquie. It was few hundred yards on and we had been there before. This time we rang the bell and were brought in and we tasted the two best reds as we couldn’t remember which one we had last time. We bought six of each as they were both good.

We had passed another and we were about to drive on but decided to call in. The sign was almost overgrown. The name of the winery was Faraud et Fils (Faraud and Sons). As we approach a woman drove away and we thought that they would be closed. We rang the bell and the man came to the door. he had good English (better than he thought) and he sat us down to taste his four wines.

The first wine was good, not great. The second was better. The third better again and the fourth better again. What a gem. I’m glad we didn’t miss it. We got to talking and chatted for a while about this and that. We bought a dozen of the two best and six each of the others. During the conversation I asked him who decided the taste and combination of grapes for each of the wines. He said, “me”. Then he qualified it by saying that he and his wife tatsed them and decided. Here we were again talking to the man who makes the wine. Brilliant!!

We were getting ready to leave when he said, ” Would you like to see the winery?” Well, I was delighted and said yes immediately. He was proud of his winery and explained that his father has passed away and he was running the vineyard and that he had a son who wasn’t interested in keeping it going. That sounds like a story you could hear anywhere in Ireland on farms.

His name was Herve Faraud. He was a lovely man and we left with a bottle of his ‘special’ wine for dinner after almost two hours. I really enjoyed the visit and am delighted we didn’t miss it.

Back to the house for a doze to shake off the wine and then up for a run before dinner. I was surprised that even at 7pm it was hot and even with shorts and a short sleeved Tee shirt I felt over dressed. I did the 6km trail run and Jack did the 9km road run. Both went well, and it was back to the house again for dinner of ravioli and Chantal’s special recipe tomato sauce.

I’m stuffed, tired but happy. I think I’ll go to bed soon,

Til later

Before leaving I wrote her a note in my best pigeon French thanking her and bidding her farewell. I left her a tip of another weeks cleaning as she has been very good.

As we were to do a swim at 1pm, my plan was to do the short route which was about an hour and a half. Jacks plan was to do the two hour route but on the first hill his calf played up and he decided to do the short route. It is unlike Jack not to have something wrong with him, his calfs are only the latest in a long line of injuries or moans. He could ‘gern’ for Ireland!! (Gern is a Northern term for whinge!)

On the way back we decided to give Yvette more time to get away and we stopped at the local pub to have a coffee. We sat outside and enjoyed the sun. This is what we signed up for.

About 30 minutes later we decided to head to the house and Yvette was still there. It was nearly 35 minutes since our coffee so we had a cup of tea sitting in the garden watching the butterflies playing and dancing around and avoiding the wasps that were lining us up for attack. It was idylic.

After another lazy half hour Thierry, the guy building the walls on the terrace above came down and called to Yvette that he was ‘fatigue’ and was heading off for a sleep. Now that’s class!!

Yvette came out and had a chat about us leaving and we shook hands and she left. That was the last time we would see her.

Time to eat as it’s a long time since we ate and we needed to keep our strength up for the swim. I made some fruit salad and we ate it with yoghurt. hhmmmm!

Off to the pool and there were the usual floaters etc but it wasn’t too bad and I did 34 lengths. Tomorrow its 40!!

Back to the house, it must be time for lunch. Jack made some soup from a carton and we had it with some of yesterdays bread as all the shops were closed as they do between 12 noon and 3pm. I’ll never get used to that now!!

It’s time for a doze. I went to bed and didn’t sleep at first but did afterwards. Jack headed off to clean his bikes wheels which he didn’t get to do earlier and I just did nothing. Rush, rush, rush!!

He was shoutin’ at the bike and I went to help and he shouted at me, well not really shouting more of a whingy moan about not being able to get the wheel back on. I offered to help and asked where the allen keys where, more moaning. I went and found them myself and fixed the wheel and the brake cable. Jack should really be a thoroughbred horse as he is temperamental and prone to injury.

The Champions League is on tonight and we’re going to Avignon to watch it. Should be good crack.

12:15am

Well we are back in the house after a nail biting penalty shootout and a Man Utd victory. We had a great night and it was a pity that one side had to lose. We were talking to three French guys and they were good crack. I was driving and as such wasn’t drinking. One of the guys wanted to practice his English on us and the more Jack drank, the louder he got. At one stage I had to tell him that the guy was practicing his English but wasn’t hard of hearing. You know that situation where someone can’t speak English and the other person speaks louder instead of slower and more clearly!! Well that was Jack.

He is a happy bunny as you can see from the photo below.

Til tomorrow

We got back to the house at around 7pm and after another cup of tea we hit the sack again for a few hours. It was such a great feeling to get back into bed after the early start and the 300km round trip. Texts arrived as Damien discovered that his flight was diverted via Glasgow. He joked that he would catch a Celtic match on the way.

It was time now that our last visitor had gone to get back to normal and we planned a visit to the pool at 1pm. The next few days until we leave on Sunday will be swim days. I have to build up the number of lengths I can do at once. Garadice Lake may not be my first triathlon when I get back if I don’t.

The swim went great. there weren’t too many floaters and the only annoying person was a good swimmer who did tumble turns. He was just an asshole.

Afetr that we went to do some shopping. We’re starting to run down the fridge and we had enough risotto and chicken left over from the previous night for last nights dinner.

In the evening after dinner Jack was on his computer and I decided to have a go at building a calendar for the Raid Pyreneen. I really was learning how to use ‘Bobs Books’ and I was delighted at the result. It was a first attempt and I will try another version today or tomorrow.

It was after midnight when we went to bed as I got engrossed in the calendar. I didn’t notice the time going in. It’s great when you get into something like that.

I’m trying not to thing about leaving France and Saint Victor la Coste. It has been a great experience and we still have two weeks before we go back to W…!

Til later

On the way back home we called into the winery and bought a few things to bring home. At home, we had a doze and then it was time for dinner. Chantal’s recipes saved the day again and we had risotto with Chicken stuffed with Parma Ham and garnished with fresh basil form the garden. Not bad if I may say so myself.
It’s another 3:30am start in the morning to get Damien to the airport and with luck we will be home and back in bed again at 7:30am after the 300km round trip.
Great news from home that the Fingal Sprint which is our clubs race went really well. Excellent stuff and a tribute to the work that is put into it by the 3D Triathlon team.
Thants it for now. We’re just killing a bit of time with a few glasses of wine before an early bed and an early rise.
Til tomorrow

We went together on the normal route and at the first climb as agreed Jack headed off and I didn’t see him til he got back. I found it a bit hard as I haven’t been on the bike for two weeks but I enjoyed it.

When we got back it was a case of getting showered and heading to the air show in Orange. We stopped at the tourism office in Orange to get directions and after getting lost once we found our way. It was about 25 degrees and we were hungry and thirsty. Unfortunately there was only crepes to be had and we got some to fill the gap.

The show itself attracted many thousands and was spectacular. For anyone who is into planes click on the link to the photographs. There are some good ones and even more average ones but it’s worthwhile if your into them.

After getting home we had a doze and found it hard to get up at 7pm for dinner. I never realised that enjoying yourself was so tiring.

We headed to the local restaurant for dinner and as usual it it just OK. At least you can walk to it.

Now we’re back at the house, Damien has gone to bed and tomorrow we are heading to Mont Ventoux. I want to get a photo of Tommy Simpsons memorial as I haven’t been able to get to the top where it is as it was closed due to snow.

Til tomorrow.